Education and Early Years
[Updated 11/06/25]
We wanted to let you know that this qualification will be withdrawn on 31 July 2025, as it will be replaced with a new version with a different qualification reference number.
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Registration end date |
Standard student registration dates were 1 September 2024 to 1 November 2024. The last date we can accept very late student registrations is 31 July 2025. Please note that a charge will be applied for very late registrations. Please ensure your students are aware that this version of the T Level technical qualification is no longer available after the last date of registration. Please refer to the Key Dates Schedule on the NCFE website for more information. |
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Certification end date |
31 August 2028. Please note that the certification of T Levels is managed by DfE. Further information can be found at T Levels results and certification. |
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Assessment information |
Further assessment opportunities will continue to be scheduled, for existing and continuing students in the 2024/25 cohort, until summer 2028. |
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Reasons for withdrawal |
This decision is due to the development and go-live of a new version of this T Level technical qualification. |
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Replacement qualification |
A new version of the T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years (delivered by NCFE) will be available from September 2025, subject to IfATE and Ofqual approval. |
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2025/2026 registrations |
Registrations from September 2025 should be made against the new version of this T Level technical qualification delivered by NCFE. Further information will be shared on the replacement qualification in due course. |
Essential T Level read: Education and Early Years Generation 2
The new Education and Early Years T Level qualification specification and assessments have now been approved by Skills England. These will apply to all students starting their first year of this T Level in September 2025. We’ve released the specification and will share the remaining materials this month.
We recognise that the late release of these materials may place pressure on you and your teams shortly before the end of term, and we’re sorry for any impact this may have. However, we were unable to release these materials until they were approved.
Please ensure you read the information below and share it with your colleagues.
Important update to the qualification specification for Generation 2 Education and Early Years T Level:
When we released the qualification specification for the Generation 2 Education and Early Years T Level, this was issued as a draft while we worked with the Department for Education (DfE) and Skills England on a review of the guided learning hours (GLH) attributed to the placement of the Early Years Educator Occupational Specialism.
We’ve now had confirmation from DfE and Skills England that the policy and service requirements don’t permit the inclusion of GLH in the placement hours (outside of the 100 hours that are already included).
To ensure that you have clarity on the GLH and total qualification time (TQT) requirements, we’ve updated our qualification specification. Please ensure you’ve downloaded the most up to date version of the specification (version 1.1). The qualification will remain within funding band 6.
We’ll continue to monitor GLH throughout the duration of the qualification lifecycle and work closely with stakeholders as part of this process.
Overview and key changes
After being appointed to operate the second generation of this T Level, we took the opportunity to review what was working well and how the qualification could be further improved. We took account of the feedback we received from providers, especially about deliverability, as well as recommendations in the Department for Education’s Route by Route review. We consulted our Technical Education Advisory Board (TEAB), subject matter experts, and employers. We’ve used this feedback to recommend changes to IfATE (now Skills England) and Ofqual, and the new qualification has now been approved.
Key changes to the qualification:
- A revised look and layout of content: we’ve set out the materials more clearly to enable you and your students to engage in the content in a more seamless way, removing any ambiguity in the content you’re required to cover through the teaching, learning and assessment.
- A review of the content across the core and the Occupational Specialism to provide greater contextualisation of the content and ensure that content is relevant and aligned to sector practice. This includes:
- a reduction in elements within the core from 12 elements to 7, removing duplication of content and realigning content to provide a smoother teaching and learning experience
- a reduction in the number of theoretical approaches covered to allow students to engage more deeply with appropriate theories and approaches relevant to their practice.
- A refocus of the core assessments to emphasise the importance of the skills within the Employer Set Project (ESP).
- Provision within the assessment for appropriate knowledge from elements 1 and 7 to be assessed within the ESP to help reduce the volume of assessment through examination.
Key changes to the way this qualification will be assessed:
|
Area |
Generation 1 (up to September 2024) |
Generation 2 (from September 2025) |
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Core content structure |
12 elements |
7 elements |
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Core: exam/s |
Two core exams |
One core exam |
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Core: exam timings |
4 hours (2 x 2-hour exam) |
2 hours 30 minutes |
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Core: exam content |
Elements 1 to 12 |
Primarily elements 2 to 6* *See qualification specification for more information |
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Core: exam design |
Core exams, including case studies |
Core exam no longer includes case studies. However, additional extended-response questions have been included |
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Core: Employer Set Project timings |
Contained untimed tasks / sub-tasks 12 hours broken down at task level to smaller chunks of time |
To support accessibility and fairness, previously untimed elements are now timed, which is reflected in the total durations 15 hours 45 minutes broken down at task level to smaller chunks of time |
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Core: Employer Set Project content |
Assessment of all core skills Draws on knowledge across all 12 elements when required |
Assessment of all core skills Targets elements 1 and 7 more explicitly |
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Assessment weighting |
Paper A: 35% Paper B: 35% |
Core exam: 60% |
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Occupational Specialism content – Early Years Educator (EYE) |
Broad outcomes |
More clearly defined outcomes with clearer links to development and care |
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Occupational Specialism content – Assistant Teaching (AT) |
Broad focus on SEND |
Stronger focus on SEND and curriculum access |
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Assessment duration (Occupational Specialism) |
Early Years Educator: 25 hours 45 minutes to 29 hours 45 minutes Assisting Teaching: 14 hours 30 minutes to 16 hours 30 minutes |
Early Years Educator: 21 to 26 hours Assisting Teaching: 9 hours 30 to 12 hours |
What this means for you and your students
If you have students starting their first year on this T Level in September 2025, you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the Generation 2 specification. Students who have already started on the Generation 1 T Level will finish their course studying the Generation 1 specification. This means that you may be running both the Generation 1 and Generation 2 specifications at the same time.
Materials and support available
We’re releasing the following documents in a phased approach. You can view these once released on our new Generation 2 qualification page. Please note that the Generation 1 materials can still be viewed on the legacy qualification page.
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Item |
Publication date |
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Generation 2 qualification specification |
Friday 6 June |
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Generation 2 Employer Set Project and Core Paper sample assessment materials |
w/c 9 June |
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Generation 2 Occupational Specialism sample assessment materials |
w/c 16 June |
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Generation 2 Guide Standard Exemplification Materials submission |
w/c 1 September |
Please note that we’ll publish the Key Dates Schedule on Tuesday 1 July 2025. This will include the dates for Generation 2 Education and Early Years assessments.
To support you with the delivery of the Generation 2 specification and assessments, our Provider Development team will provide curriculum consultations, drop-in sessions, CPD events, webinars and bitesize recordings for tutors and assessors. These can be booked through our events webpage or curriculum consultation booking form.
Changes to fees for Generation 2 Education and Early Years
In our May communications to principals, we shared details about the changes we’re making to our T Level Technical Qualification fees for 2025-26. These fees have been approved by the DfE (formerly the IfATE Contracts team). Read more.
As an educational charity, we aim to keep our prices as low as possible for customers, and we’ve kept some of our T Level related fees the same or reduced them this year. However, to ensure we reflect the cost to deliver T Levels more effectively, we’ve increased the registration fee for the Education and Early Years T Level. Please refer to the table below for the full list of fees for this qualification, applicable from 1 August 2025.
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Registration/entry fee |
£375.00 |
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Late registration or registration amendment |
£21.00 |
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Very late registration or registration amendment |
£42.50 |
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Late entry or entry amendment |
£8.00 |
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Very late entry or entry amendment |
£16.00 |
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Re-take – TQ Core Component – External Test |
£16.00 |
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Re-take – TQ Core Component – Employer Set Project |
£16.00 |
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Re-take – Occupational Specialist Component |
£30.00 |
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Clerical check |
£5.00 |
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Access to student assessment evidence |
£25.00 |
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Review of marking (only chargeable if grade not changed) |
£45.00 |
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Expedited review of marking (only chargeable if grade not changed) |
£52.00 |
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Review of moderation (only chargeable if grade not changed) |
£650.00 |
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Appeals Stage 1 – Paper based appeal (only chargeable if grade not changed) |
£100.00 |
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Appeals Stage 2 – Independent Appeals Committee (only chargeable if grade not changed) |
£300.00 |
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Support visit fees – Full day visit |
£650.00 |
Further support and queries
If you have any queries about the Generation 2 Education and Early Years T Level, please take a look at our FAQs webpage, or reach out to our T Level Customer Support team at [email protected]
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Upcoming events
We have a full schedule of interactive and useful training events taking place over the next few months. Visit our events webpages for more information.
Sign up for our half day virtual events:
- Embedding assessment into T Level delivery, Wednesday 25 June: in this session, we’ll explore how to interpret assessment criteria confidently, plan purposeful formative assessment activities, and align them with curriculum intent. Sign up now.
- T Level lessons learned, Friday 4 July: in this session, we’ll review the lessons learned on completion of the two-year programme. Sign up now.
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